Twitter, apparently.

Stay the heck tuned .

- Rachael 

The Things I Look At When I Feel Lonely

Jackson and I at a concert, taken by our local newspaper, and my grandma and her late husband Mac.

 My brother Grant and myself circa 2000

 Me as a baby, a blurry Gromit in a fighter plane, and my Chinese family before I was born

 Program for 'The Matchmaker', the show that changed my life (more on this later), and a medal for best director.

The view from my seat. Obligatory school photo from 2007, and a photo of myself and Kim in Malaysia.

It can get quite lonely being cramped up in my little office every night trying to study with the distraction of Facebook (I'm getting better, slowly, but VCE is ever creeping up on my bad habits), so I keep a collection of photos to remind me of the people I love. My favourite thing is the juxtaposition of an old photo of my very happy grandma with her beloved husband, and the new photo of myself and my beloved Jackson. It makes me think maybe we have the chance at the happiness they had. 

I never met my grandfather, as he died just under 30years before my birth. But I remember my grandmother showing me photo albums of herself and Mac when they were still dating in the forties. There's one of her sitting on a little wooden boat as they float down a river. She has long, curly hair, a radiantly young face and is wearing a pretty white bathing suit. The caption is simply, 'At the river - very happy'

I am now, about the age she was when the photo was taken. And I am sure that I am at the same place in life as she was 70 years ago. Young, free, in love, and very happy.

- Rachael

because I can’t just choose a couple of pictures…

Firstly, this post is 1 month and 1 day late. Secondly, please excuse the many many photos… but I did warn you about not being able to just pick a couple of good photos unlike every other blogger who somehow can. To our dismay, we wasted a good half an hour just trying to run into each other’s paths. Long story short, we met in Melbourne Central under the clock at “noon”. The whole day was reserved for pure shopping (and the in between lunch break). Christmas shopping, in fact. We hopped from shop to shop, stall to stall and mall to mall. Tiring? Yes, but only by the end of the day (refer to last picture for photographic proof. =S)

That day was special because it was the day I fell in love... with Topshop. It was true love at first sight. The metallics, the sequins, the velvet and above all… the SHOES! *faints* I still haven’t yet quite recovered from the hard fall, and I don’t plan to.

-Kim

Awkward MirrorBoothing

(Photos 1 & 2)
Wearing: Sanoii & Six dress, Cotton On blouse, brooch gift from Jackson, TopShop lipstick.

(Photos 3 & 4)

Wearing: Family Affairs dress, Dotti top, pincurled hair and zero make-up.

There's this thing I find really cool amongst blogggers called 'Awkward Photoboothing'. It's where bloggers, in the absence of a photographer boyfriend or a fancy SLR, submit to the low-fi technology of the in-built laptop camera. Fashion blogging is all about the photos. If you have bad, washed out, cheap photos, it doesn't matter how nice your clothes are. There's something almost lomographic about photoboothing however, that says 'Actually I'm just trying to show you my outfit for the day'. Thus I found for myself Awkward MirrorBoothing, sometimes known on the Internets as 'The Myspace Profile Pic'.

 Unashamedly take photos of myself in my large loungeroom mirror, is now what I do. 

- Rachael

Let's Play - Skyrim (Part One)

When not being girly and fashionable with her cousin Kim, Rachael occasionally writes Let's Plays. Just warning you now that she is quite prone to Capslock.


A little while ago, when I thought I was the most hilarious person on the Earth, I wrote a really brief Let's Play series called 'A Girl on Minecraft'. I thought wearing dresses and lipstick on weekends qualified me as a new age outsider; a novelty in an obviously nerd dominated world which therefore made me funny. Well I'm here to tell you that I'm still female but I realised being that didn't make me laughable.

Being really shit at gaming did.

Read now, complain later.
~  ~  ~

Skyrim greets me with overly dramatic sound effects of swords clanging together when I click 'New Game', telling me immediately that just about everything in this game is going to be all 'I AM NEEDLESSLY EPIC'. The ominous, grumbling tone of the music accompanies a fancy and obscure poem about prophecies and apocalypse in the loading screen. I'm painfully aware of the fact that I haven't even begun playing the game and the theme of DRAGONS, BITCH has already been plastered up on my screen. Song of the Dragonborn? As in, something born to a Dragon? That has the ability to compose verse and then sing it?

I wake up on a wagon, having apparently been unconscious and meet a ruffian whose name I've now forgotten. I think it started with R. Let's call him Rodolf. He's our token macho-rebel-mentor-wrestler-looking guy. When it appears that we've arrived at Token Medieval Village and the coachmen nonchalantly mentions the 'headman', Rodolf sticks to his macho guns, telling Wimpsie Pickles opposite me to cut his whiny bullshit and deal with the fact that he's about to die.

"Also your tunic is ugly"

We're unloaded and Wimpsie makes a run for it before being killed by incredibly slow archers. I am then invited to take a leisurely jog by Obligatory Woman Soldier, but am saved by the fact that I can't actually move yet.

Here comes the 'Unexplained Anonymity' part and my executioners ask politely who I am. What follows is like Create-A-Sim from The Sims franchise but on a couple heavy doses of Tolkien and sugar pills. There are so many ridiculous choices that I write to my gamer friends asking what I should be. My first choice is 'Brenton' because they look the most human, but with a name like 'Brenton' and an apparently adeptness at spells, I sense the 'Brentons' are the nerdy kids on the block. With no other tactic to choose, I completely disregard what ever specialties each race has and try to find one that resembles me.

Clearly this one.

Finn advises me to be a Wood Elf, who are good at archery and are probably smaller than most of the races. I am at least half those things, so the choice is made. My comparison to Create-A-Sim at this point looks a bit understated, because faced with the ability to customise my neck colour, I get the 'NEEDLESSLY EPIC' vibe again.

"I heard that Lucii from Fala Village has a blue neck. That's so fetch"

As I watch the bloody beheading of Overly Brave Prisoner, an otherworldly shriek comes from the distance, echoing through the mountains around us. It isn't loud, but it sounds of horrors only found in deep abysses of endless caverns, into which water falls but never sees enough sunlight to be again evaporated and escape the darkness. The shriek is hollow and pained. It's foreboding, and also foreshadowing. I waste no time to wonder what it is. Shoved down onto execution block, my head is tilted conveniently towards the sky.
Another shriek. Obligatory Woman Soldier insists the proceedings press on.
Then the tension splinters with the arrival of the foreshadowed terror. 

Huh. Didn't notice.

Chaos rains down on us, along with the sudden mass of rubble and I'm sent flying through the burning village like a cat with its tail on fire. I run for my life, bravely dodging all manner of fire and stone hurled at me like the born rogue Elf soldier that I am.

Loljks I was more scrambled than eggs in my feeble, sweat-laden, scream-inducing attempt to not die.

HOLY 

HOLY MOLEY LOONEY

HOLY MOLEY LOONEY WOODY ALLEN JESUS

And then I died.

Fair enough. 

Shall update more later. 

- Rachael

Etsy Spotlight: The Bare Bones

My camera charger is still lost so I'm resorting to spotlights again to keep blogging! I'll find it soon though, I need too! I'm going to visit Kim on Friday and I intend to take photos! I may have to use my humble Lumix if all else fails though. I may even take my Holga! Choice choices. 


In the mean time, here is some gorgeous photography by Claire Alice Young Photography. 
I've noticed a trend in photography that favours a vintage-feel, with soft lomo-like tones. Some of this shoot almost looks colour crossed. 


My favourite is the pearl beaded sleeveless shirt. I am a complete sucker for sleeveless. 
I just think it looks so elegant. And the pearls remind me of Coco Chanel.


In the mean time I have two days left of school before a big shopping trip in Melbourne (!!)
with Kim, as mentioned. 
Can't wait!


You can shop Bare Bones' vintage collection here.


- Rachael 
 P.S. A quick side note about Chanel; I really love movie soundtracks and
this has been playing all night for me. I haven't even seen the movie (but I will!),
I simply love how charming this music is.

“Portrait”

I’ve previously mentioned that Bryan came over to snap a few photos for his personal project – “Portrait”. These are a few photos that I got off him, and I certainly can’t wait for the rest and see how it turns out. It was a funny session. One moment, we were all serious and I was trying my best to look normal… and then the next moment, we would have a laughing fit for reasons I would not mention. =P Oh, alright, I’ll tell you. We mainly just laughed about how spastic my face was (thanks to his super speedy camera).

Bendigo is amazing. Time spent with Rachael, Amy, Lydia, Michelle and aunt Ruth is even more amazing. I haven’t felt such peace and privacy in so long. There are a lot of people and a lot of things going on, but at the same time, there is enough space and privacy to do the things you want to do. It’s amazing. It’s one of the reasons why year 12 was the best time of my life – yet. One week is not enough. I love the my girls, I love the time and the people here. I’ll be back next weekend. Oh I can’t wait! <3

-Kim